Finding an all-in-one event management platform that fits all your needs in today’s event landscape is a must when hosting virtual, in-person or hybrid events. Increasingly, event platforms are also valuable tools for in-person and hybrid events, as well. That’s why leveraging your event platform to its full potential can bring your event to the next level. All-in-one event platforms are powerful because, with them, you can foster inclusive, lasting and meaningful event communities before, during and after an event.
How can you use your event platform to its fullest? Here are seven ways to build and nurture your event community.
1. Engage your attendees throughout the year.
Creating an engaging experience for your attendees is at the heart of all successful events, and event platforms make staying connected with your audience easier than ever before. Even after an event is over, you can keep the experience front and center in people’s minds by sharing recorded segments of your event on-demand and even creating new content to share over time. Hopin, for example, an all-in-one platform designed for customized interactive event creation, offers video recording and storage capabilities, so you can make your event evergreen.
In the spirit of uncovering additional monetization opportunities and giving your sponsors and speakers more engagement opportunities with attendees, set up post-event Q&As and expo areas, so guests can return and find out more about the product, service, topic or discussion.
Additionally, why limit yourself to one event? After one of your main events is in the books, continue to engage attendees with smaller virtual event touchpoints throughout the year. Utilize networking capabilities to encourage ongoing connections, and leverage interactive functionality, such as chat, private messaging, upvoting and the like to sustain attendee engagement—regardless of their geographic location.
2. Foster an engaging and inclusive space for attendees.
To really create a lasting community, try to ensure that your event provides an inclusive and engaging environment for your attendees. The very nature of virtual events is that they work to extend your attendee audience by allowing participants to attend from anywhere.
There are many ways to make events more accessible for attendee audiences, so use your event platform’s registration page capabilities to find out what your attendees need. For example, you could use this type of information to make sure an in-person event’s venue can cater to people with mobility issues and dietary restrictions. On the virtual end, look for digital accessibility options, such as language translation options, closed captioning, real-time sign language interpretation and the like. Working to create a more inclusive space for your attendees shows you care about your community.
3. Leverage event content to spark and sustain attendee conversation, sharing and connections.
Creating an immersive experience for your attendees during the event is a vital ingredient to its success. Many event platforms allow you to create and customize interactive activities, like quizzes, Q&As and polls (or, even better, live polls—which can help you get real-time information about your attendees and better customize their experience.) Games are also great ways to keep your guests engaged—and rewarding participation with prizes only helps to incentivize attendees further to join in the fun. Some platforms also offer features, like photo booths, likes and emoji capabilities during chats, creating a more dynamic, socially driven and memorable experience.
Bonus tip: You can also amp up networking opportunities through small breakout sessions, where attendees and speakers can chat and connect with one another in a more intimate environment.
4. Align your event with a charitable cause.
Whether the event is in person, virtual or a combination of both, making social responsibility a part of the event’s theme can help form an emotional connection with your attendees. Portions of ticket sales can go to a good cause, for example, or you can implement some other sort of charitable fundraising element into the event experience itself. Through a partnership with GoFundMe, Hopin’s event organizers can select a GoFundMe charity or altruistic cause to support and add it to their event. During the event, the fundraiser will appear in an activity panel, allowing attendees to learn about the cause, make a donation and watch the fundraising happen in real-time.
5. Cater event promotion to what matters to your attendees.
The story starts before the event even begins, with the question: What matters to my attendees? Knowing this will help your marketing be more genuine and resonant when targeting your audience. Utilize your platform’s marketing tools to get people excited about your event from the moment they first see your event’s website and by sending targeted emails with updates, special announcements and more to spark additional interest and anticipation. You can even create exclusive, or premium, experiences to help make your event stand out even more.
6. Incorporate attendee-generated content to spur engagement.
People love to see their stories become a part of the main story. Use your event platform’s Twitter integration to pull in user-generated content using your event’s hashtag and display it throughout the event. Attendees will want to get in on the fun as well, which will help boost engagement and build a buzz around your event.
7. With built-in analytics, discover key event community influencers and generate trackable word of mouth referrals.
Advanced analytics and reports built into your event platform allow you to gauge where your attendees were the most engaged, giving you insights to make your next event even better. They can also help surface key attendee influencers, who are driving word-of-mouth referrals and boosting overall event community engagement.
Learn more about how event organizers, brands, associations, organizations and more can use Hopin’s all-in-one event management platform to foster lasting and meaningful event communities year-round.
